US President Donald Trump on Wednesday on Air Force One said “nothing” would jeopardise the ceasefire in Gaza, but added Israel “should hit back” if its soldiers were killed. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out three strikes on Tuesday despite the ongoing ceasefire, killing 30 people, after the Israeli military accused Hamas of attacking its troops and violating the US-brokered truce, Reuters reported.“As I understand it, they took out an Israeli soldier,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back,” he added.“Nothing is going to jeopardize” the ceasefire, Trump said. “You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave.”“If they (Hamas) are good, they are going to be happy and if they are not good, they are going to be terminated, their lives will be terminated,” Trump said.“Nobody knows what happened to the Israeli soldier but they say it was sniper fire. And it was retribution for that, and I think they have a right to do that.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza, his office said, as Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza.“Hamas’s attack today on IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force,” Katz said in a statement.
Ceasefire tensions rise over hostage remains dispute
Renewed violence between Israel and Hamas has strained the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip amid deepening mistrust over the return of hostage remains, a key element of the truce agreement.Israel accused Hamas of reneging by not returning them, but the Palestinian Islamist group said it would take time to locate the remains amid Gaza’s war-ravaged ruins, according to AFP. Hamas later said it would delay Tuesday’s handover, adding that Israeli “escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies”. In a further statement on Telegram, Hamas’s armed wing said it had found the bodies of two hostages on Tuesday. It did not say when it would hand them over. Hamas had come under mounting pressure after it returned on Monday partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israel said was a breach of the truce. Hamas had said the remains were the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10. But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu’s office. Israeli govt spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian accused Hamas of staging the discovery of the remains. “I can confirm to you today that Hamas dug a hole in the ground yesterday, placed the partial remains… inside of it, covered it back up with dirt, and handed it over to the Red Cross,” she told journalists. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the govt to “act decisively against these violations” and accused Hamas of knowing the location of the missing hostages. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel’s bombardment during the two-year war had left locations unrecognisable. “The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located,” he told AFP. Hamas has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.
Is Israel-Gaza heading towards another war?
After the violation of the ceasefire, it seems that the situation which was becoming normal for Israel and Gaza is now slowly turning back to the original term. Israel have already started to attack Gaza and as witnessed in history Hamas may also retaliate. However both Trump and Vice President JD Vance said that this will not affect the ceasefire. US Vice President JD Vance said the ceasefire was holding despite Tuesday’s “skirmishes”.“That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes,” said the vice president, one of several top US officials to rush to Israel last week to shore up the fragile ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump.“We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an IDF soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond — but I think the president’s peace is going to hold,” he added.The ceasefire, brokered by President Donald Trump’s administration on 10 October, has so far failed to stop intermittent violence. According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 68,531 people have been killed since the war began in October 2023, when Hamas’s attack on Israel left 1,221 dead and over 250 taken hostage.
